Weakest “P” in the 1325 Pod? Realizing Conflict Prevention through Security Council Resolution 1325

Abstract

The year 2015 marked the fifteenth anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women and Peace and Security. This article analyzes the marginalization of the resolution’s prevention mandate in the theoretical and policy literatures. Our feminist analysis reveals that shortcomings in the policy arena are foreshadowed in conflict prevention scholarship. Conflict prevention research under-theorizes gender drivers of conflict, focusing excessively on cause/effect links at the expense of (gendered) structures of signification that make violence possible. Mirroring these gaps, the implementation of the conflict prevention mandate of 1325 fails to confront the war system and gendered forms of militarism and militarization. Nevertheless, the work of agencies and organizations outside the Security Council presents opportunities for long-term and systemic social transformation. We suggest that advancements in the protection and participation aspects of 1325 can strengthen its prevention mandate because together these provisions challenge the gender norms that are implicated in the occurrence, justification, and sustenance of violent conflicts.